Our Experience with Logic

When I was about thirteen, my
parents announced that we were going to study logic. What thoughts
flitted through my anti-intellectual mind I can't rightly remember,
but I imagine they weren't good. Back then, my father had not yet
taken on much of the responsibility for our schooling, so the burden
fell on my mother's shoulders. If you don't know what it is to learn
logic with a woman, how can I describe it to you. My mother had
never studied logic, but as it fell out, we spent some of our most
enjoyable hours learning logic together. What I didn't understand,
she explained to me, and what she couldn't grasp, I helped her understand
– the latter taking the greater balance of our time.

Together we learned about "if, then" statements and how
to reduce an argument to its premises and conclusion. We argued
over whether a statement really does have the same truth value as
its contrapositive, and we found that the text book was right after
all. Our favorite subject was logical fallacies such as circular
reasoning, the straw man argument, and post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Why Did We Study Logic?

My parents wanted us to learn logic because their goal was to give
us a Classical Liberal Arts Education, and because they desired
to see us stand strong for the Christian faith. A child who can
logically understand what he believes will hold fast to the truth
and will defend it throughout his life. If we are able to clearly
reason from the Bible, then we will be better equipped to give a
proper defense of our faith. (I Peter 3:15) Also, the laws of logic,
in one way or another, are fundamental to every academic discipline.

How We Learned Logic

Back in those days, having these goals was all well and good, but
putting them into practice was another matter. My parents didn't
know how to go about learning logic themselves, least of all how
to teach it to their children. My father had taken logic in college,
but the teacher was bored with the basic principles of practical
logic and wanted to start right off with the higher realms of modern
symbolic logic. This did no good for my father's education in logic,
and he dropped out of that class. At first, all the text books my
parents found were written for a college classroom where a teacher
who already knows logic can make the subject digestible to his students.
We needed a self-teaching text.

Then my mother stumbled across two series of books published by
Critical Thinking Books & Software: the Building Thinking Skills
pre-logic workbooks and the Critical Thinking introductory logic
texts. Since that time, we have found other texts which I will explain
later. These two sets were what my mother used with us children.
In recent years, my father has recognized more of a role to play
in our education, and has been using other logic books to continue
improving our reasoning skills – especially with us boys.

In teaching logic to us, my parents illustrated one of the "undeniable
truths of Homeschooling:" that Homeschooling is for parents
also. They needed to learn logic just as much as we did.

What Do I Think of Logic Now?

Once I overcame my initial dislike for using my brain, logic became
my favorite subject. Even though exercising my mind is often painful,
the reward is worth the effort. My study of logic continues through
today with the research I have done for this booklet. I still enjoy
learning more about good reasoning skills, and I hope this love
for learning continues all of my life. It seems to me that I have
received more benefit from learning good reasoning skills than from
learning Algebra or Chemistry. Many of these subjects which I studied
as a typical Homeschool high school student I might draw on once
in a month, whereas logic is something I use every day.

Why You Should Study Logic

Perhaps you can't envision setting aside the time to learn logic.
Then consider the time you've spent learning other things which
you've used very little. You will find that learning logical reasoning
will be time well spent.